Originally Posted by
maviskw
Maybe you've figured it out by now by reading the other posts. They are just scraps of fabric that you sew onto after you have finished a seam. That's the ender. Then it becomes a leader when you sew onto the next piece. We use them to keep the thread from bunching up at the start of a seam, to keep the needle from unthreading itself, and to mark our progress (putting one on after each 10 pieces). Some people call them spiders (because they often have lots of threads hanging from them), and some call them startie-stoppies. Whatever you call them, they are great.
Just a bit of a clarification: l/e are not just scraps of fab. These pieces are cut to a specific shape/size and used as described above, but then these pieces themselves will/can become another pieced item when those l/e are then sewed together into whatever.........spiders as mentioned above are indeed just "scraps" used to save thread, stop nests on bottom, or whatever, and used until they are globs of thread ends .........not meaning to degrade anyone here, just to make a clearer explanation to someone who may not know the differences in terms.............